The Poise, The Practical and The Popular
by Insecure-Amphibian Pebbles
Summary: It hadn't been too long since the events of Beach city being attacked by Home World, where several of its citizens were kidnapped but eventually freed by Rose Quartz's son. One of the victims of this kidnapping struggled to adapt in a world he could have been taken from, only to find solace in the states Bad Boy, who's emotionally decieving ways could eventually hurt him.


**Authors note:**

 _The timeline of this story takes place after the Episode 'A Single Pale Rose' and after the short reveal that played after that episode aired.. You are not required to have been caught up to read the story however there is the posibility that if you are not up to date with at least that, that a few minor elements could be confusing or potentially filled with MAJOR spoilers for the main cast and crew._

 _That being said I would like to place a last few notes before I begin this, this is not required to read to enjoy and or understand the story._

 _As this is a story I want to write, it will be placed in the canon universe world, but any major events that take place between 'A Single Pale Rose' and anything after it in the show, will not have effect in this story. I may take elements this will likely not be completed before the next episode(s) come out, but if it majorly contradicts anything I have planned for this story, it will be quietly ignored._

 _ **Warning:**_

 _This story will contain:_

 _Swearing_

 _Drug and alcohol use by minors_

 _Suggested physical abuse_

 _Emotional abuse_

 _Suggestive situations_

 _Cheating_

 _general tomfoolery and teenage hijinks_

 _and is also gay. Very Very gay._

 _I also do not, likely will not and do not know anyone who speaks Fillipino, as one of the characters (At least I have head canoned) is Fillipino I am trying my best to translate things correctly. If you would like to provide corrections to misuse of words in this language, do not hesitate to let me know. Thank You._

—- CHAPTER 1

The tame atmosphere was one of rarity in beach city, at least after the last attack from the homeworld of gems. Many of the residents still hadn't gotten over the fact that they were on the brink of an interstellar war. The newly elected mayor Nanefua was at least preparing for the possibility of a worse case scenario. But the people still went about their lives. Delmarva still had people bustling and beach city was still the center of Delemarva's supernatural happenings. Perhaps their version of tame was just a very different tame than others described it as, everything ran as normal, they were all just much more cautious.. prepared, worried. Especially in the case of one young man whom had nearly entirely changed since the two gems came from their alien planet and kidnapped him. The list always ran through his head.

My dad

Connie

Lars and Sadie

The Mailman

And Onion, I think.

How often the little blue one had said it, in her high pitched phony British accent, how could it not have been stuck in his head. Especially when they had come to save them. And the big yellow one.. Topaz nearly killed him. Sometimes at night he could still feel her cold hand around his head, or his body constricted by the bodymass. He hadn't been able to hug anyone in weeks, or even let a blanket be on top of him at night. And he still felt his stomach twist violently whenever he had seen Steven in Beach City. He could have done something. He could have helped fight them, but he had frozen to the point of having to have been physically thrown off the ship. Perhaps that was why he had spent so much time staying up at night, learning lines for one man shows he'd put on nearly weekly except the nights he worked with his improv team. He still delivered mail, it paid the bills in his tiny studio apartment, kept him fed and clothed but was barely ever enough to scrape by.

He had been endlessly stressed, worried, done. Not to mention the fact that he was supposed to be an adult now. Twenty, living on his own, paying his own bills, not relying on his parents from out of town to give him money every so often. God, he couldn't tell his brother, or his mom or his dad about all the crazy stuff going on. They'd only worry. They'd demand he came home immediately.

His route took him nearly across the entire city, not that it was a bad walk, beautiful view of the ocean, and with a small town it wasn't hard to get to places. Surprisingly even Steven's house wasn't hard to get to, and luckily for him, Steven didn't have any mail, and wouldn't for a while. Anything that wasn't necessary to go to Steven immediately went to his dad, who'd ask why it couldn't go to Steven and he'd always have an excuse and Greg would believe him.

His typically fluffy brown hair was nearly matted from his hat weighing on it all day and it felt good to get the stupid uniform off and actually get the chance to wash it. He had unbuttoned his shirt the moment he got home, closing the door with his foot to soak in his filthy studio apartment. The bed unmade, blankets and both dirty and clean clothes mixed together to the point that he couldn't tell the difference any more. It wasn't always like this. Just recently did he start to.. give up wasn't the word. At least not the word he wanted to use. The young man grabbed a towel that had been hanging over a chair that he was fairly confident was clean, and went to his bathroom to start the shower and belt out show tunes for roughly forty five minutes.

His phone went off a few times, outside of the bathroom on the one kitchen counter.

(5) missed calls: Ina

Ina: syota, please pick up the phone...

Ina: Jamie this isn't funny your fathe...

Ina: Don't make me go all the way ou...

And when he was done he dressed in some lint covered white t-shirt and jeans, only to look around his apartment and realize how much he wanted to be not here. Not alone. At least not while it looked like this. He grabbed a basket which had ironically been filled to the brim with items that weren't clothes and was ready to grab one of the many shirts, or pants or socks that was on his bed when there was a sharp knock on his door. His prayers had been heeded, not be alone here. Just some friendly face to provide him some company. And as he reached for the door and turned to unlock it, he became immediately disheartened at the sight of one of the crystal gems. Pearl. The one who always showed up to the improv nights.

"I'm so sorry to bother you at your er-" she had leaned to look around him at his mess of a home which caused his face to flush red out of embarrassment. No one needed to see this. '-humble home. But Peridot and Amethyst won't be able to come to the next improv night, nor will Steven and I due to highly important gem stuff that would take too long to properly explain and I don't want to waste too much of your short human life span. But I hope you can accept my dearest condolences, and good luck at your improv night Jamie!" Pearl smiled uncomfortably. Handing a letter to him that read 'Condolences from the crystal gems' in a neat font, immediately making it the nicest thing he owned.

Jamie took the letter with a sigh and slowly closed the door, re-locking it and throwing the letter onto his countertop. His soft black colored eyes drifted to the clock on the microwave that read 4:30. God he wasted so much time anymore. It was mood killing. He tried to go back to cleaning but he couldn't bring himself to do any more than put the clothes on his bed in the laundry basket. He felt that he wanted to do something, but for the love of all things holy he couldn't figure out what he wanted to do. He didn't want to go outside alone. He didn't want to clean his filthy apartment despite how badly it needed it. He didn't want to work on new improv ideas. He would rather die that force himself to memorize an entirely new script. So instead he laid face first on his rugged unmade bed that was likely filled with bedbugs and just closed his eyes, letting his wet hair nearly soak the bed.

Maybe he dreamt. Maybe he didn't but he had still woken up much later, to sit up, spit hair out of his mouth and squint his eyes to look at the green light of the clock on the microwave. 10:00. It was dark outside, city lights reflecting off the water, and now the poor boy was awake, his phone piled with missed calls and texts from his mother, his grandparents, his brother and a few texts from Barb about work and 'not getting signatures'. But he stared at his phone only to further ignore them. He was tired. He didn't want to be yelled at by his helicopter parent for his less than practical dream. All he wanted to be was an actor! But that dream was far from a reality. So, he grabbed a black over coat that hung off the headrest of his bed, flung it over his shoulder, shut the lamps in his apartment off and went outside in the dark night, with no one to actively bother him, no giant women that were secretly two women, or small jelly bean looking alien out to get his ass killed.

But there seemed to be another kind of thing looking to get his ass killed.

The boardwalk was quiet, the arcade shut down, the lights from the more-city part and the light house atop the hill nearest to the beach being the only light to guide him to what he liked to call his 'contemplation location' or more simply the 'thinking log'. Jamie had to look for it for a moment. Beach city was so much different at night. Nothing looked the same. Even what he should have never been able to forget, looked like it was pulled out of a different world in this dark dimension. A waxing crescent over head across the water, above its problems where the light of the sun would begin to shine on it once again to reveal a full moon at which would show all it's imperfections, like a flower who's beauty was plucked from the earth and placed on display for all to see.

In this shallow, less engaged form of the drama zone Jamie still seemed to be distracted enough to nearly miss the madman racing down the beach front in a bright yellow car.

The mirror narrowly missed Jamie's shoulder blade, startling the man enough to send him launching himself forward into the sand, landing and taking a mouthful, of cold, gritty and disgusting sand, before the car turned sharply and raced back towards the mailman who sat face first in sand. His illegally tinted windows rolled down to reveal some white smoke billow out of the car that smelled like overly ripe black berries and vanilla. The source of the smell being the driver who took a moment to take a breath from the tip of a black tube with a glass casing of an amber liquid with the consistency of molasses.

Jamie pushed himself out of the sand, rubbing sand out of his eyes and hair, spitting out sand from his moth before growling at the stranger. "Can you not drive where people are walking?" Sure it was out of character but, he was just done with everything recently. But man did he really wanna punch this punk with his response.

He breathed out letting the white smoke roll out of his mouth and a bit out his nose.

"I'm just out for a little night cruise, so how about you get that stick out of your ass and don't walk where people are driving." He hissed. His black hues narrowed at Jamie, nearly black hair pulled back as he ran his hand through it.

"Seriously dude, who do you think you are? nearly hitting a pedestrian?"

"The better question is how do you not know me. Might wanna get a glass of water baby~"

"For wha-"

and the guy in the car slammed on the gas, sending sand flying absolutely everywhere, including filling Jamie's mouth and eyes with the gritty, cold, disgusting sand once again before taking off.

It was humiliating. It would have been at least if anyone had actually been around to see that whole thing play out. But Beach City was quiet at night. Few people left their homes because they knew what they risked. As the yellow car sped off into the dark horizon, music turned up so loud after the driver passed Jamie, that he could still feel the ground thumping from it's repetitive beat. He dragged his hand down his face, pulling sand from his eyes and blinking the rest out. At least the uncomfort of having most of ones daily diet consist of sand, proved he was awake and human. And most importantly, alive.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Expecting it to be his mother once again, he pulled it from his pocket, he was surprised to see who of all people would message him at this nearly 10:30 hour.

Steven U. [10:27 pm]

That's Kevin. He's always like that.

Steven U. [10:27 pm]

You can tell because his car is as obnoxious as he is.

Steven couldn't have seen exactly what happened.. Even if he were home he'd likely be asleep, and even then the temple was too far from where he was now to be seen. But of course that Magical young teen had to have recognized that.

Steven U. [10:29 pm]

It's some silly gem stuff. Here let me send you a picture.

Steven U. [10:29 pm]

image file 002471

The picture was taken and showed a glowing orb that had the lines of earth continents. Pearl, Amethyst, Peridot and.. One he hadn't seen before. She was small and red. Slightly shorter than Steven. All of them were crowded around the orb and from what he could see of the background it looked like it was a camera, focused on him at the moment.

So Jamie texted him back:

You [10:30 pm]

Where are you?

Steven U. [10:30 pm]

The moon.

Jamie had to rub his eyes to make sure he read that right and it wasn't sand messing with his vision. And when he was sure he had, he looked at the moon and smiled uncomfortably and waved a hand.

Steven U. [10:31 pm]

We're looking for someone. And yea I know, why would I willingly go back to space after Aquamarine and Topaz and the whole diamonds thing, but it's important. Goodnight Jamie.

Jamie knew better than to ask question, especially with his less than stellar knowledge of the whole gem thing that honestly scared him a little bit. Even if someone took the time to explain it to him, he'd likely still be confused. So he let it be and instead located the log he often sat on. His hand rested on his knees that were just short of chest height here. His fingers interlocked with thumbs circling each other as he gazed emptily at the ocean. Staring at the reflections of the stars in the surface of the water. His eyes still stung and the at least most of the evening meal was sand, despite his best attempts to spit it out. He wondered if Steven was still watching him from that strange room. At least there he was safe with Pearl and Amethyst and presumably Peridot and the red one.

In the past few months he had momentarily quit his job, moved to Kansas to pursue his dream, got his dream shut down tens of times, moved back to Beach City and started back up as a mailman, convinced himself he was in love with a sentient space rock, (to which Amethyst later explained was 'basically two smaller sentient space rocks in a trench coat who are hella gay for each other'), got a stern talking to by said space rock which pushed him towards community theatre arts, put on a play that landed him as head of community theatre arts, put on several one man shows since no one showed up to auditions, got kidnapped and engulfed by a completely unrelated sentient space rock, developed basically PTSD from the space rock, freaked out on a ship, realized he was terrified of heights as he was thrown off the ship, tried to settle down a little more, started an improv team, and then was just bullied by some high and mighty punk in a super ugly sports car.

A soft ringing filled his ears along side the sounds of the oceans and night birds. He checked his phone once again only to see time had gone by in the moment he recounted his life.

11:57 pm.

It was nearly midnight but there was no post on Sundays, which meant no work tomorrow. But it was still smart to get back home and go to bed. Despite the fact he'd never felt less tired in his life. But still, home was safe, and maybe he could actually clean his little apartment for once. And of course shower once again to clean the sand times two out of his hair. As he walked from the boardwalk he noticed lights from above the city, blue, red, neon pink and green, all beaming from the abandoned warehouse just outside city limits. But he'd only get laughed at if he tried to investigate. It was best to just ignore it for now.

The music from his own radio drowned out whatever come back that poor fool could come up with, which was none. Expected, no one talked shit about Kevin. Other wise he'd find out and they'd be shown why they didn't talk shit about Kevin. He sped off the beach, looking into his rear-view mirror to see that sucker try to get sand out of his face for a second time in two minutes. And he chuckled at his attempts, bringing the black pen up to his lips, only to laugh once again at that idiot which forced him to recoil the pen before he choked on the vapor. He drove through the city, yellow car standing out against the dark night sky and night-abandoned city before him. Beach City was home to some cool people, of course, only one as cool as him, but that persons separated components were fucking losers. A fourteen year old and a twelve year old, who honestly made one hot babe whenever they did... whatever it was they did. But Kevin wasn't about that life, well, if one were to discount the fact that he's nineteen, has a fake I.D. Is an absolute man whore, drives like a bat out of hell and makes moves on both males and females at a lot of the parties he went to. But he wasn't going to get his ass thrown in jail for hitting on two kids. Besides, they could come in handy. At least with his dream to be remembered for being cool. Chances were his reckless behavior would get him killed before he was an actual adult, but hey, lives were short as is, he didn't care.

His vehicle went up the hill towards the warehouse where another monthly rave would be held. This time people knew Kevin would be there. And there was no party like a Kevin party. Despite the embarrassment that was the one he held at his home not long ago, people still were hyped for the chance to see Stevonnie at one of them. Out of this hype, teens and super young, young-adults showed up from halfway across Delmarva. The ones of age were cool about it and brought booze, irresponsible nearly kids ranging from seventeen to twenty-two getting drunk, smoking some questionable shit and having a good time. But the party would have just started. Kevin always made his appearances grand. He was definitely a ladies man, but more than a ladies man, he was eye candy to nearly everyone, he wouldn't admit how many time guys had hit on him, but life was about having fun, so why not flirt back?

His car stopped, it beeped as he hit the lock button, the worn building shook with the music played by the one who invited him to the first rave. Sour Cream? what an odd name. The room should have stopped, the place was packed. And it did, like expected. He could see it now, these old hags on their death beds whispering 'kevin threw the best parties', but he had to attend some of the (not quite Kevin levels of great) best parties in Delmarva first before that happened. People stared at him, the music died down and the aura of the old warehouse quickly amped up. He took a hit from his black pen before shoving it in an inside coat pocket, dramatically pointing at Sour Cream who was just above the dance floor.

"Hit it SC." he purred, and the music was at least higher quality this time. The guy definitely learned from the last party he had thrown. He could feel the looks from a few of the beach city 'natives' who saw him at the last party as he ditched after the reveal of Stevonnie, they thought he was a creep, and man he couldn't blame em' but he was here for the same reason they were, to have a good time, and they all put that behind them.. well.. made it less clear that they hated his guts.

He danced the night away, drank a beer or two, did some, once again, questionable things with a few girls who showed up, flirted around, broke some hearts when they realized Kevin didn't need a lover in his life, but they didn't need to know it was because of a really bitter breakup he was absolutely not still trying to get over.

But who gave a shit about the past, this was now! His left hand was against the wall as he leaned towards a girl who spent most of the late night party at a wall. His vape in hand as he pretended to get along.

"Honestly sweet heart, what's with such a pretty thing like you being by the wall, ain't flowers supposed to catch the eye of everyone, ' cuz it certainly caught mine." he winked at her, causing her face to flush red. He didn't know what was more adorable, this girls blush or the fact that she was joyfully unaware of getting a wrong number at the end of a great night. He forced a laugh to laugh along side her.

"I-I'm flattered but... I'm just... I don't go to these kinds of things." But Kevin had is ways, his voice was like nicotine, once you had your first hit, you couldn't stop. And boy did he know that.

"Hey, I get it baby! Don't stress!" He wasn't one to... 'deflower' young ladies, not that he hadn't at events like these, but he knew how to get what he wanted, when he wanted it. Now was not one of those times, he just wanted to get the hopes of some innocent fine young hottie, then flush it down the drain, that was how he got his high. It was hilarious.

But someone caught onto his little game. "Lilly! come'ere! Jarrod's gonna see how many he can chug, let's get ready to drag his ass home." Lilly sighed, getting ready to leave to whomever called her, only for Kevin to push her against the wall with his own body.

"Hey, don't go yet! The party's just started babe!"

"I- I really should go..-" She was lit up like a damned firetruck, Kevin knew this girl hadn't ever been this close to an even reasonably attractive guy before. He'd feel guilty if he wasn't just a shitty person. But boy was he aware of it.

"Fine baby, let me at least give you somethin' to remember me by~"

He lightly placed his lips on her cheek before letting her go. It was nearly daylight outside anyway, so he'd have to be off back to his house. Next time he and that poor Lilly were even in the same room, he'd have forgotten her, moved on to his next victim.

The girl and her friends left, the music had died down over the late hours and the fluorescent lighting lacked the same initial pizazz it had at ten thirty. He didn't care to check his phone, his internal clock said 'six am' which meant he was out much longer than he intended, but that's always how this worked. He could drive home but.. he'd had a drink or two and was a little fuzzy, and the highway was hell even as an asshole driver like himself. Yea, he knew his behavior was unsafe and would probably kill him, but that didn't necessarily mean the guy had a death wish. So his.. passable.. better judgement had him lay down in the passenger seat of his car, at-least until his slight headache went away. The quiet of his vehicle was peaceful. It was nice to get away from the significantly less cool members of the world, but his little lapse of peace was interrupted by knocking on his window, when he peeked out, it took him a second to recognize who was outside his car door. The teens porcelain colored skin and stratosphere-blue eyes should have been unrecognizable, but honestly Kevin only ever noticed the guy when he was bathed in several hues of neon lights. But of course Sour Cream wanted to talk to the best thing to happen to his 'Raves', ever. So he pressed a button that automatically started his car and rolled down the window.

"hey, Kevin. Uhh, so I hate to have to say this, but like, a few of my friends in Beach City are still kinda touchy around you? After the whole Stevonnie thing I mean, and having you at my parties is serious street cred, so I don't want you to leave, but maybe.. at least at the ones I host, tone it down with the whole.. whatever it is you do."

Beach City was full of pansies, but having live music at a party nearly always brought the attention up, especially because Sour Cream just had a special sound to his work that Kevin could respect.

"Yea, I get it baby~" Sour Cream's pale skin tone visibly flushed when he was called that, and it made Kevin laugh. "I get what you're saying though, can't risk ruining my reputation in Beach City, after all I've got a legacy to make!" Though that was most of the truth, it wasn't quite right. Beach city was the best place to show his stuff, and it had fools like the loser on the beach that he could bully endlessly to his enjoyment. Sour Cream nodded, a hand brought to the back of his neck as he turned from the car window to continue packing his gear up.

The whole, getting it down from the platform was the hardest part about packing up, Jenny and Buck both stayed around to give him a hand.

"Did you talk to that jerk, Kevin?" Jenny asked, grabbing a box and placing it in a rolling cart that had been used to get everything here in the first place. Sour Cream nodded.

"He said he'd at least chill out about it. Something about a legacy."

"Hopefully he does chill, honestly, the way he was talking to Steven and Connie was super uncool." Buck chimed in, helping get the second box off of the platform and handing it to Sour Cream who handed it back to Jenny to put in the rolling cart. The other two nodded at Bucks words of wisdom. He was right, Kevin was honestly the worst, but he brought a liveliness to the party no one could ignore. Even if he was a major dickwad.

Buck had left sooner than the other two, saying his dad would kill him if he wasn't home before sunrise. So Sour Cream and Jenny were stuck loading Jenny's car with the heavy rolling cart. Lifting it as a team to get it off the ground and into the back.

"I wish Steven were here, for a little kid he's got some strength in that tiny bod, and we wouldn't have to try and kill our backs loading your gear." Jenny snickered, getting in the drivers seat of her car and buckling up. Sour Cream put himself in the passengers seat, headphones around his neck as he latched the buckle over his shoulder. He nodded in agreement but they both knew how much trouble they'd be in from his guardians.

"Amethyst would be chill with it, but I'm not over exaggerating when I day Garnet would blow our brains out and Greg and Pearl would make him stop talking to us for eternity." He said, brushing some of his nearly white hair out of his face. "Especially because of A- Kevin, B- there isn't ever a responsible adult at these, and C- I think Pearl is a little mad at us cuz' of the whole space shuttle thing and nearly getting Steven trapped in it."

"Dude, it's not like we had any idea that thing was still active! You have to admit it was cool though, if he was older he'd totally be a legit member of our squad."

"You're right.. He's pretty tight, but we don't wanna get him in trouble." Every one had a life of their own, yea, but they all seemed linked to Steven in some way. At least the people of Beach city seemed to.

The pair of rebellious teens began their trip down the mountain, a cassette tape titled 'SC's after party chill-tape' played on the radio in low volume as they talked about the night, watching the view of the sun beginning to make its grand appearance over Beach City, bathing the city and sea in oranges and pinks, thus marking the start to a new day in Beach City.


End file.
